Brr, Madrid has gone cold and we are having 1-2 degrees with alot of wind, yesterday it was snowing horizontally! Ladies has got thick winterrugs both inside and outside now. With fresh inspiration from SICAB we continue our day by day training. Coco the new student is doing very well. We are working out on the pessoa as he is tight and gets choppy in the canter. He is slowly getting the flying changes but until canter has improved the risk is he is going to change front first and back later. He also needs straightness through the topline, he get parted in three and neck, shoulder and croup are not always aligned. A firm contact between aids is what we need right now. Coco is a intelligent horse and learns quickly but his body needs more gymnastics so he can move better and more correctly before he advances teqnically. Donoso is playing out his tempi-two's and this has improved the overall quality of his flying changes. As always pure pleasure work as he is absolutely through in his body we can just play and have fun. He loves his training and so do I!

Yesterday I got a phonecall from one of Spains top breeders asking me for recommending a rider to come and work for him. This is a great oportunity for a serious dressage rider, excellent skills in bases of dressage are fundamental. You are welcome to send your curriculums to me, including a video of you riding, and I will forward the suitable applications.

Here a sneakpeak of a merited PRE stallion of excellent quality I am happy to recommend any serious dressage rider or PRE breeder. He is working PSG level + piaffe/ passage and a Grand Prix talent. He has several medals from important A-championships in Spain. And he can really move this beautiful guy!

SICAB is over and it has as always been a intense and wonderful experience. Great to meet friends and collegues and celebrate a year of work, collaborations and friendship. I only regret I did not manage to see everyone, this event is big and the hours seems like minutes rushing by when there is so much you want to talk, do and see. This year the competiton was celebrated in a slightly smaller scale, SICAB normally has around a 1000 horses competing during the week but this year the number of participants was around 500. I enjoyed very much seeing some beautiful horses and movers. Even though you can see a red thread in composition of both mares and stallions there is still unequal quality of especially the movements. You still see hocks that go up and out behind (like trotting horses) and many are not diagonally correct. Some of these still get good scores because they move with big gestures which I think it is a mistake when the horse do not have a correct coordination front and back and the movement naturally produces a hollow back and lack of rhytm. A classy typical spanish horse moving with grace and ease is such a divine sight and if you want an example of what I am referring to do look up this years Campeón Adulto Mejores Movimientos 2012 - YERBERO - Reproductor Calificado and Joven Reproductor Recomendado for dressage and Campeón Adulto Funcionalidad SICAB 2011. Yerbero is pretty close to the perfection of a typical classy spanish horse moving with grace, ease and power. Neither of his parents has ever competed, to me he is not a horse produced by calculation of bloodlines nor merits from parents (neither has competed not even once), he is simply a grand horse, bred in the spanish manner and one that came out with distinction thanks to a spanish professional breeder with a good eye for quality. As I have no pictures from SICAB I post these where Yerbero is winning the goldmedal in FIECVAL, The European Championships 2011, next to Festivo that got the bronze.
Yerbero (middle) scored 28,333 in the funcionalidad, outstanding! 

Happy sunday everyone! Are you ready for SICAB!!!!!!???????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????

Spanish Championships in Sevilla - The biggest horse race competition in the world and all those passionate about the spanish horse get just as excited every year. I hope to see as many friends as possible, please come and say hello if you see me and I don't see you. SICAB is the perfect place to catch up and have some real communication done, not just virtual facebooking or polite emailing. So hope to see you all on thursday to saturday!

After last weeks german waldorf visit I am now getting a swedish invasion and I have been slaving by the stove (for once). I am getting serously vegetarian again and my old cookbooks are now dusted off, I am also trying to eat as much raw food as possible, it's so good for you! Tonight we are having a feast on Creole coconut rice with garlic beans, spanish tortilla and and my absolute favourite dessert from when I lived in Belize, yummy! I Proudly present;
Marengue Key Lime Pie - rude food with thrillons of calories :)

Dogs have had a bath, Start has had his second bodyshave and is looking smashing. Classy king Donut and Halagador doesn't get hairy, they have a skin all year around, just like Pica. Only Start and Nova get a little hairy but of course I don't shave the girly. Boys worked out in the afternoon and Donoso got socialtime with his ladies that he liked very much. Pica is curious but not super interested but Nova fancies Donut big time!
 

Tomorrow lesson for Jessica and Coco. Now off to airport to pick up guest Nr 1, let's look forward to a great November week everyone!   

Coco got his first pessoa work out today. His trot has improved and got bigger and he had a small overpass in the walk.  He's a energetic horse with a very sweet and willing attitude. Steps lightly and swift. Intelligent and ambitious to learn new things and gets it fast. Coco is a very typical carthusian PRE. 

Here's another carthusian, Bejuco, one of my all time favourites.  

Bejuco was fantastic to ride and had the easiest character a horse can have. He could do it all. There is a special and subtle quality to these most original PREs. They are normally the smaller type, around 160 cm. Cartujano's are always gentle and kind in their attitude, agile and elastic in their movements and almost cat-like performing. The high school movements are their speciality.

Bejuco

A cartujano will trot you to the end of the world because they have a heart of gold. They have a high kneeaction and flexible hooks. It is unusual to see a pure cartujano without campaneo i.e with straight leg movements for dressage. We once bought a exceptional pure carthusian 170 cm tall as a 3 year old and with absolutely straight movements. He was a rare find and is now living in California. 

Cartujano's normally have a abundant mane and tail and a shiny silvery skinlike coat which in itself is a sign of purity. Straight nose and perfect physical proportions. Another effect of purity is slow physical development, these horses need time to develop. As they have such ease in bodily balance and a big intelligence it is easy to excel the training too fast. The advice is to go slow and build up the physical slowly even though the temptation is there to advance as they are such fast learners. 

The bloodlines of the cartujano are the main ingredient for the PRE horse, through them the spanish horse get its racetype. So when we see a beautiful typical spanish horse it is really the heritage of the cartujano that we see in the horse. 

Here's Bejuco's young grandson. He is also pure carthusian, born 2009 and for sale. You can see more pictures, info and price on his page;

Nr 613 http://www.horsespre.com/product/product.asp?id=1457&fn=true&scid=3&cid=0

Today Start was well again. No swelling, no warmth. So he got a walk in the rain, firm surface. Rain, rain, drizzling rain, the one with mini-drops but that you get really soaked from. But I am not complaining. Yesterday Donoso got a workout with a snaffle, not because he likes it but because his mum likes to check how he does on it once and a while. But Donut can't stand it, he grinds his teeth because of that stupid snaffle. He only likes a certain material of steel (it's the light golden one can't remember the name of it) and the snaffle is a normal gold but. So I have to order a new one for him if I want to keep 'snaffling'. Today I rode with his double bridle and he was all smiley and quiet again. The bar bit is 1 cm too big but he loves THAT one, and NO other. Donoso has a big personality and likes his details. He always wet his hay so watercup has to be cleaned everyday otherwise he won't drink as it is full of hay. He wants (warm) water after work. He can't stand the shower in the face. When you clean his backfeet he stretches them. If I talk on the phone or with someone else in the stable he pinch me or if I am not closeby he puts his leg somewhere inconvenient like between a bucket and its handle to attract my attention. Just to take it out quietly without breaking or getting stuck in when I come back. The best reweard is to let him canter fast, low and loose (with a WIDE angle) after work. He LOVES his mummy. He does not care for sweets or carrots as long as he has the attention of his person. He accepts she has to go out with the other boys but only because he knows she has to. And because he knows SHE loves him back. Donut got his diagonal of tempi twos today, it was the third time he did them. No new pictures but here's some of my favourites in replay.

Donoso VII February 2012

April 2012  

      SICAB 2009  

Coco the new student turned out to be a cool guy. He showed me what he can and is intelligent with elastic moves. I feel him very much like a cartujano, soft, sensitive and very willing. We like each other and had a good start! The other Start is not as good. He seems to have done something in walker and has a swollen leg. Anyhow I feel I have it under control, he is not lame and it is not a tendon so I have not even called vet. I treat him with laser, hyal-acid, inti-inflammatory, ice and heat and rest I am pretty sure will do it. 

Laser from www.Irradia.com

The weekend has been rainy here in Madrid but we are happy because it is necessary. So saturday all horses stayed in munching their hay. After having done a good week of disciplined work I took Start for a walk in the now green fields, the perfect reward, he was like a frisky three year old!

As my physical condition is now better I have decided to take on two new students, its a black PRE guy and his owner. This week and the following I will be starting by feeling out the horse, presentation of both later on, I look forward to working with them!

Now all horses are tucked up inside their snuggly beds and here is black little PRE guy with his pyjamas on :) Have a great new week everyone!